They didn't say keyboard turn, they said STRAFE, which is to move in a direction perpendicular to the direction you are facing.

If I am reading what you said correctly, as soon as the right button is pushed, your character's direction becomes oriented to the same direction the camera is facing, so if you only push the left button, you then run "forward", not to the side. So how does that accomplish strafing?

Unless you honestly can't think of any time where strafing could be beneficial. Even tanks benefit from strafing a boss to turn them or moving out of the fire while still facing them enough to block/parry/dodge.

If you push only the left button nothing happens, you stop. You turn by just moving the mouse around.

If you push only the left button nothing happens, you stop. You turn by just moving the mouse around.

Let's say you're playing ele shaman with ascendance and spiritwalker's grace up while a ret is running at you. I as ele strafe away at full speed and still spam lavabursts at him, while you either run away and do zero dmg or stand still and the ret catches up to you.

I do it because it annoys people more than anything. Any good caster won't be tricked by your silliness but there's still plenty of bads out there who it is very effective against. Even if it doesn't give you a meaningful advantage, it still infuriates your opponent. Hell I do it against other melee to keep them on edge as Ret because a lot of my attacks aren't even melee range...so I dart in and out and all around to make them mad. Works great.

I really dont see the point of running around people, especially against a caster

I cant use backstab if I'm not behind them and no player out there turns there back to me. What else am I supposed to do? Ask them nicely to turn around? Also attacks from behind cannot be dodged,blocked or parried, so you are also doing more damage.

As others have said as well against a keyboard or slow mouse turner they won't even be able to hit you.

The generalist looks outward; he looks for living principles, knowing full well that such principles change, that they develop. It is to the characteristics of change itself that the mentat-generalist must look. There can be no permanent catalogue of such change, no handbook or manual. You must look at it with as few preconceptions as possible, asking yourself, "Now what is this thing doing?"-Children of Dune

1.Some attacks require you to be behind the target
2.Most attacks require the target to be infront of you (For Casters)
3.You cannot Dodge/Parry/Block attacks from behind
4.Some attacks have a low range, so continously moving and following the opponent makes it easier to always have a move.
5. It practices your fingers and keeps you 100% focused,and passes time in between GCD (assuming you're using all your abilities PROPERLY.)
6.It does annoy some people.

You completely missed half my post where I talked about people generally only doing it during stuns.

you don't get behind someone DURING a stun. you get behind them BEFORE the stun. this way your stun has a lower chance of being avoided. you can stand still AFTER you have used your stun from behind, until your stun finishes. then you continue running behind them so that more of your attacks/abilities land on them.

If you want to talk to me about wow theorycrafting or anything really:Eranthe#1639

you don't get behind someone DURING a stun. you get behind them BEFORE the stun. this way your stun has a lower chance of being avoided. you can stand still AFTER you have used your stun from behind, until your stun finishes. then you continue running behind them so that more of your attacks/abilities land on them.

With cheap shot you do it from any angle. Thinking about it, when I cheap someone I walk through them holding right mouse button, spin 180 then hit strafe left/right a few times while I fine-tune the direction, confirm which way I'm facing in case I need to move fast and maybe even move backward/forward a bit if needed. Could people be seeing this and thinking it's mindless strafing?

Windwalkers like to side step with T15 2-piece! Just realized it's in the PvP section. Sorry mates.

"I realized it is the struggle itself that is the most important. We must strive to be more than we are. It does not matter that we will never reach our ultimate goal. The effort yields its own rewards." -Data

In PvE, unless you're dodging a mechanic or there's a MOVE OR THE HODIR DEBUFF WILL GET YOU thing going on, melee should stand the fuck still and slap. They're potentially moving out of their autoattack range and gimping themselves otherwise.

In PvP, I would have thought the importance of being mobile was obvious. You're either trying to get behind people to avoid parries/dodges/being cast at (whilst they are also moving) or they are just trying to keep you off balance.